NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying for Auto Club 400 no longer boring

Two-time NASCAR Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. laughs as his photo is taken after speaking with fans during a question and answer session at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014. Earnhardt will be racing at the Fontana track in March in the Auto Club 400. (Will Lester/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)

FONTANA — Outside the rainouts of 1999 and 2008, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying at Auto Club Speedway could easily be described in one word: boring.

That will not be the case this afternoon when 43 drivers will compete for the pole position for Sunday’s Auto Club 400. Since JJ Yeley and Dave Blaney withdrew earlier in the week, the new knockout procedure won’t send anyone home, but will create plenty of suspense and drama.

In past years, cars went out individually as determined by a drawing. Oftentimes, the elements, mostly cloud cover, played a role as drivers took one or two laps around the two-mile superspeedway. The qualifying record of 188.425 mph was set in 2008 by Kyle Busch driving a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Under new procedures mandated for 2014 by the sanctioning body, there will be three sessions starting at 4:40 p.m. (FoxSports1). All 43 cars entered for the fifth race of the season will get 30 minutes to post a time. The fastest 24 will advance to the second session, 10 minutes in length, after a five-minute break.

The last session is limited to the 12 fastest cars and will last five minutes. The driver atop the speed charts in the last session will be awarded the pole.

NASCAR rules prohibit hoods from being lifted during qualifying, but cool boxes will make their second appearance of the season along pit road. Following complaints by drivers two weeks ago in Las Vegas, where the speed differential between cars on a qualifying run and those cooling down approached 130 mph, the boxes were allowed as a safety precaution.

“Now, you can cool your cars off in a timely manner and you can get yourself back out there and run you another lap if you have to,” said Clint Bowyer, who drives a Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing and called the situation in Las Vegas “dangerous.”

“Any kind of bubble driver or anything like that, you weren’t really safe before, but now you’re really not safe because that guy can come up,” Bowyer added. “You kind of knew how to play your cards because you knew darn well that if that guy went out there with three minutes or four minutes to go and didn’t quite beat you, that he didn’t have a chance to get back out there and do it again.

“Now he can get in there and get that baby cooled off, make an adjustment and he just might bump you off the bubble. That’s going to cause you to go out there and make another lap. It’s going to be even more nerve-wracking now than it ever was.”

Tire wear will also be a factor.

“Fontana is going to be a little different than some of the other tracks we’ve visited so far because it chews up the tire so fast that you’re going to be one (lap) and done,” said Kurt Busch, who will be driving a Stewart Hass Racing Chevrolet. “You’re not going to have much of a chance to improve your lap time; therefore, this will almost go back to more of the old-style of qualifying where you just go get that one lap in and, hopefully, you make the top 12.

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“And, you’re going to be slipping and sliding around like you’re on banana peels if you make that final 12. It will really be a competition to see who can slide it around there the best to win the pole. I’ve been anticipating this qualifying run for a little while, now.”

ACS has been hosting Cup races since 1997 (a total of 24) and its track surface is the original one, which some drivers appreciate.

“If you look at the way everything has been repaved, ACS is one of the oldest tracks on the schedule,” said Ryan Newman, making his Fontana debut for Richard Childress Racing. “You can sometimes see four- and five-wide racing on the straightaway. It’s a fun place to race.

“It is a lot more fun to race now in comparison to the way it used to be because of the age of the asphalt.”

Aric Almirola is in agreement.

“I so much enjoy going to the kind of race track where the asphalt is old and worn out. I wish there was a way to repave these racetracks with old asphalt,” said Almirola, who drives a Ford for Richard Petty Motorsports. “It would allow Goodyear to bring a tire that is softer and makes a bigger difference.”

David Gilliland has been at the track since its opening and offers a different perspective.

“Fontana’s a different racetrack. It’s a two-mile track, so you’re going really fast, but it never feels like it has quite enough banking. You get down there in the corner, and it just feels like you need about 10 degrees more banking,” said Gilliland, a former Chino Hills resident. “And it’s gotten rougher and rougher over the years. So, it definitely presents its own set of challenges.